Feeding device for presses.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

SIDNEY HORSLEY, OF HOOSIOK FALLS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE PLANTERS OOMPRESS COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

FEEDING DEVICE FOR PRESSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 653,736, dated July 17, 1900. Application filed September 5, 1899. Serial No. 729,431. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SIDNEY HORSLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hoosick Falls, in the county of Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Feeding Device for Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to feeding devices for presses, and is designed as a specific construction embraced in and covered by the generic invention and claims of Patent No. 645,724, issued March 20, 1900, to George A. Lowry.

The object of the invention is to provide means for efficiently presenting the material into proximity to the slots in the head-plate and to prevent the same from arching or bridging across the slots, thus providing for the efficient feed of the material to the press.

The invention consists,substantially,in the construction, combination, location, and relative arrangement of parts, all as will be more fully hereinafter set forth, as shown in the accompanying drawings, and finally pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a broken view in plan of a press, showing the application thereto of a feeding device embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the feeding device, showing the means for operating the same.

In the drawings, reference-sign A-designates a hopper or basket adapted to be arranged over the feed-in end of the press and into which the material to be pressed is delivered and from which such material is drawn or fed into the press-chamber. I have found that where the material to be pressed is of a light fluffy character--such, for instance, as cotton, wool, or the like-and is supplied to the hopper or basket in considerable quantity it sometimes occurs that such material bridges or arches across or over the delivery end of such hopper or basket, thus preventing it from reaching the press-chamber. Itis the purpose of the present invention to prevent this arching or bridging action and to provide means whereby the material is efficiently presented to the press. These objects and purposes are accomplished in the present instance by pivotally mounting the hopper or receptacle on trunnions or pintles B, journaled in suitable bearings in uprights or standards 0, suitably supported on the presschamber or framework in position for the hopper or basket to be arranged centrally over the press-chamber, and I provide means whereby a rocking or swinging movement is imparted to the receptacle or hopper about the axis of its journaled supports. This rock ing movement may be imparted through any suitable or convenient arrangement of operating devices. A simple and efficient arrangement is shown, wherein a crank-arm D is connected to one of the journals B, upon which the hopper or basket is pivoted, and to the free end of said crank is connected one end of apitman E, the other end of such pitman being connected to a crank-arm F, carried by a rotating shaft H, suitably journaled and rotated from any convenient source.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that when rotation is imparted to shaft H a rocking or swinging movement will be imparted to the hopper or basket A. If desired and in order to regulate the throw of pitman E, and hence to adjust the degree and extent of swing of the hopper or basket, one or the other, or both, of the crank-arms D F may be longitudinally slotted, as indicated at G, and the pitman E adjustably mounted in such slot, as clearly shown. In this manner the hopper or basket is oscillated or rocked, thus not only preventing or breaking up any arches or bridgesinto which the material may form in the said basket or hopper, but also exerting a downward pushing action on the material, thereby serving to efficiently deliver and present the material to the press.

While a construction embodying the features above set forth is adapted for use generally for presenting cotton, wool, or the like to presses, it is particularly adapted for use in connection with the type of press disclosed and claimed, broadly, in Patents Nos.-581,600 and 581,601, issued April 27, 1897, to George A. Lowry, and in-- the application of said George A. Lowry, Serial No. 682,9-17, filed June 8, 1898, wherein is employed an openended chamber or holder, a slotted head-plate arranged over one end of such chamber, and means for relatively rotating these parts.

to fill the same to a point such as to cause.

some pressure against the under surface of the head-plate. Now by, imparting a relative movement to the chamber and head-plate the material thus preliminarily introduced to the chamber and which moves in contact with the under surface of the head-plate efiects a drawing action across the slot or slots in the head-plate as it moves across them. Therefore if additional material is presented to the slot '01 slots and in such proximity thereto as to be-brought into contact with the surface of the mass of material in the chamber or holder, such additional material, the fibers of which are already more or less entangled or interlaced with each. other, is caught or engaged by the material in the chamber, and thereby drawn through theslot or slots into the chamber and between the surface of the mass in the chamber and the inner surfaceof the head-plate, thus building up the material in superposed flattened and condensed spiral layers or convolutions, each succeedinglayer being compressed upon the preceding layers andadding to the extent thereof an increment to the compressed mass in the chamber. In this manner thematerial is compressed and correspondingly advanced through the chamher by each spiral layer added as an increment thereto, such material finally emerging from-the chamber in the form of a condensed and highly-compressed column, the chamber operatingas a holder for the mass of material which is being compressed and the headplate-operating as an abutment against which the-compressed mass bears.

Inthe adaptation of myinvention to a press of the type set forth the basket or re-- ceptacle A is arranged centrally over the head-plate J and delivers upon the top surfacethereof, as clearly shown.

The-bridging or archingv of the material above referred to also sometimes occurs across the slots K inthe head-plate. This is particularly true where, in order to secure the desired rigidity in the construction of that portion of the head-plate which overhangs the open end of the press-chamber to enable it to withstand the pressure against the inner surface thereof to which it is subjected, the head-plate is so constructed as to leave a considerable ridge or elevation in the surface thereof, as indicated at M, between adjacent slots, the surface of said ridges or elevations tapering or sloping toward the edges or lips of theslots. By the oscillating or. swinging movement imparted to the hopper or-basket A, as above described, this bridging or arching of the material is prevented, and the material is agitated and crowded or pushed down into the depressions between the elevations or ridges, and hence into proximity to the slots, thereby enabling it to efliciently contact with the surface of the mass in the chamber, whereby it is drawn through the slots and into the chamber in the manner above described.

Having now set forth the object of and nature of my invention and a form of construction embodying the same and having explained its purpose, function, and mode of operation, what I claim as new-and useful and of my own invention, and :desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. Ina press employing anopen-ended chamber or holder, a slotted head-plate for one end of said chamber or holder, and means for relatively moving these parts, in: combination with a basket.- or hopper arranged centrally over the head-plate and provided withq trunnions, hearings in which said trunnions are received, and means for rocking said trunnions in their bearings, whereby I said chamber or basket is agitated, asand forlthe purpose set forth.

2. Ina press employing-an open-endedf chamber or holder, a slotted head-'plate-for: one end of said chamber or holder, and means for relatively rotating these parts, in combination with supporting-standards carried by said head plate, having bearings. formed; therein, a basket or hopper having trunnions; said trunnions adapted to be received in said. bearings, and means for rocking said trunnions in their bearings, whereby said basket crank-arms being adjustable, and meansfor rotating said shaft, as and for the purpose set forth.

In witness-whereof I have hereunto. setmyv hand, this 26th day of August, 1899, in the-n presence of the subscribing witnesses.

SIDNEY HORSLEY. Witnesses:

BENJ. HoRsLEY, A. GETTY. 

